Gateway Baptist Church
03/09/2025 The True Vine
  • In The Garden
  • Have Faith In God
  • I Am Thine O Lord (I Am Thine)
  • Footsteps Of Jesus
  • We've A Story To Tell To The Nations (Message)
  • I Know Whom I Have Believed

  • John 15:1-8

    How many of us have ever planted a grapevine? Jenefer and I have friends back in Kemp who planted rows of grape varieties on their farm. We constantly tended to those grapes to help them grow up the arbor and keep them off the ground. We would loop different branches onto the wire each week to support the vine. Occasionally, Chet and his brother prune them, and we would collect the branches and add them to a pile. It was hard work, but the payoff was well worth the effort.
    Whenever I pass by fields of grapes, I remember the effort that goes into them. Someone is constantly monitoring the grapes, watering, feeding, and pruning when necessary to ensure the grapes grow healthy. Nevertheless, all those farmers share that they cannot make the vines bear fruit; only God can do that. The same is true with His creation. Only those who abide in Him will become fruitful. There is pruning that the Father will diligently work on you and me to help us grow more and healthier fruit. But, no good fruit is produced if we are not abiding in Christ. What does it mean to abide? We abide in His presence, His Word, His Father, each other, and His love. We will look at the first three today and the last two next Sunday.
    Before we explore these areas, let's take a moment to uncover the meaning of “abide.” Μένω(Meno) means to remain, stay, reside, dwell, lodge, continue, rest, survive, be permanent, preserve, or be steadfast. To survive, find rest, continue producing good fruit, to preserve until the end, and to be a permanent fixture for Christ, we must abide in Him.

    His Presence:

    Why did Jesus use the analogy of the vine? Israel was seen as the vine (Jeremiah 2:21). Whenever Israel is depicted in this way, the focus is on the vine’s failure to bear good fruit and God’s looming threat of judgment. In contrast to this failure, Jesus declares He is the True Vine, the one to whom Israel pointed, the one who produces good fruit. Jesus has already, in principle, superseded the temple, the Jewish feast, Moses, various holy sites, and here He surpasses Israel as the very locus of the people of God (Psalm 80:8; 14-17). He desired fruit, but the vine (Israel) became corrupt and produced rotten fruit. Therefore Jesus, as “the true Vine,” fulfills what God had intended for Israel. The Father is the Gardener who nurtures and protects the Vine.
    Christ’s “I am the good shepherd” with his parallel claims to be “the true bread” or “the true vine,” we also see that the word means “genuine” or “true,” as opposed to “false” or “artificial.
    James Montgomery Boice
    Jeremiah 2:21 ESV
    Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?
    Psalm 80:8 ESV
    You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
    Psalm 80:14–17 ESV
    Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself. They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your face! But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
    Some in Israel rejected the Vine or claimed to be of the Vine yet did not bear good fruit. Today, some assert they belong to the Vine, but their fruit is rotten. Why? Because they are not connected to the Vine. What does it mean to “bear?” Bear comes from the Greek word φἐρω (phero), meaning to bear, produce, carry, or bring forth. Apart from Him in our lives, we cannot produce fruit that pleases the Father. Does that mean people cannot produce fruit? No, we see it all the time; people do kind things. However, they are unable to produce fruit that is pleasing to Him. What is pleasing fruit? It is fruit produced by a branch attached to the True Vine, as mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. Apart from Him, we cannot accomplish anything pleasing.           
    Galatians 5:22–23 ESV
    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
     Pleasing fruit is produced by His word abiding in us.

    His Word:

    Jesus’ word started these branches clean and fruitful, “already clean.” Please look back at the good fruit in Galatians 5:22-23 and contrast that with the fruit of the world in Galatians 5:19-21. When we speak, it is either fruit that builds up and edifies or fruit that tears down. Jesus’ words cleanse us from the world's filth (Ephesians 5:26) and we should start producing edifying words. If we abide in Him and His Word is abiding in us, allow our words to be that of Christ.
    Galatians 5:22–23 ESV
    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
    Galatians 5:19–21 ESV
    Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
    Ephesians 5:26 ESV
    that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
    Aside from Him and His words, we will lack the strength to endure or triumph over the trials and tribulations of this world! If we say we abide in Him and His words abide in us, and we are not producing fruit, we are liars. We also are not walking with the Father.

    Father:

    Absolutely zero religion in this world can get you into heaven! Allow me to say this to you again. Absolutely zero religion in this world can get you into heaven! Muslim, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Jewish, Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, 7th day Adventist, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Bible Church, Non-denominational, Church of God, SCB, GBC, Missionary Baptist, Fundamental Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, or Presbyterian. None of these can get you into Heaven! Through their fruit, Christians can point you to Christ and tell you about the Gospel. But a relationship with Christ abiding in Him and His words abiding in you brings you in front of His Father guiltless.
    Those who say they are of Christ but do not produce pleasing fruit will be cast away and cast into the fire. Those who do not confess Christ will never be able to stand guiltless in front of the Father. But, those who are of Christ and are abiding in Him and His words abiding in them can ask their Father for anything in the Name of Christ and will receive it.
    Allow me to clarify this ask “whatever” statement. When we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we ask for things that please Him. To advance His Kingdom. We are commanded in this passage to “ask whatever we wish.” John 14:12-14 clarifies what it means to ask. Our desires become His desires. Our fruit is His fruit. Our lives are His.
    John 14:12–14 ESV
    “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
    We tell the world we are His disciples by bearing much fruit straight from the Vine.
  • Where He Leads Me (Norris)
Gateway Baptist Church
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